


Space Friends Forever

by Pesto



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Human!Cores, Human!Wheatley, I mean they start off as cores at the beginning, Lots of Testing, Testing - Freeform, Warnings Will Be Added as Needed, first portal fic, here's to hoping for the best, space buddies, space friends
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-31
Updated: 2017-04-21
Packaged: 2018-10-13 08:31:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10510104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pesto/pseuds/Pesto
Summary: “I’m in space! I’m in space!” Space Core was content, just looking out at the stars. He gasped, as if realizing something.“We’re in space! Together! Friend! Space! Space friends!”Wheatley felt oddly touched. It was the first time Space had acknowledged him further than getting excited whenever he said “space”.“Yep, space friends forever.”(GLaDOS needs humans, all of the ones at the facility have been... decommissioned. She knows exactly who she'll use.)





	1. Space Friends

Space. Yes, indeed it was. Endless, vast, empty space. Rapidly rotating, blurry, nauseating space. It was hard to enjoy it much when all it was were bright streaks across the sky. Didn’t stop Space Core, anyways. Though, the longer Wheatley thought about it, Space Core may not even be spinning, and Wheatley just got the bad side of the coin flip.

 

The moon was the brightest and largest blur he could pick out. Of course, sometimes he couldn’t see it because, well, the sun, and... light. If Wheatley felt like it, he could try and see the Earth, a blue streak among the blackness, but he rarely wanted to see that ball of humans. Space Core kept Wheatley company, the poor guy. He did what he could.

 

“Hey Space?”

 

“Space???”

 

“Yes you, friend.” Wheatley’s optic caught a glimpse of Space’s yellow. “Do you think we’ll die at some point? I mean, dying is something that’s reserved for something that’s alive, yes, but in the sense of ceasing to function, will we?”

 

“Moon! In space!”

 

“Yep. We are, buddy.” He expected that.

 

Wheatley wished he could say that he had lost track of time, but it wouldn’t be true. Some machinery within himself has been keeping time, second by second, in excruciating detail. Twenty-four months, two weeks, five days, seventeen hours, twenty-six minutes, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty… well, you get it. Wheatley wished that, if he could die, he would.

 

Wheatley was not all that happy about his position at the moment. Endlessly floating in space, no hope of return. Karma really did her job, didn’t she? He deserved this. Every. Last. Second. He had betrayed her trust, and tried to kill her and--

 

Wheatley was despicable. And he knew he deserved this.

 

Didn’t make him any more okay with it, though.

 

Wheatley had found out that, when he could see the sun, if he positioned himself properly and stared at it, his optic would overheat and his system would have to have a cooldown, and he would shut off for about three hours, giving his processors a well-needed rest. How Space had not had even a single shutdown was beyond him.

 

Things were as normal as they could be. But Space had, oddly enough, been _less_ garbled than usual.

 

“I’m in space! I’m in _space_!” Space Core was content, just looking out at the stars. He gasped, as if realizing something.

 

“ _We’re_ in space! Together! Friend! Space! _Space friends!_ ”

 

Wheatley felt oddly touched. It was the first time Space had acknowledged him further than getting excited whenever he said “space”.

 

“Yep, space friends forever.”

 

This was nice.

 

Maybe, things wouldn’t be too bad from here. It only took _two years_.

 

\---

 

GLaDOS was in an… unfortunate situation. She realized that there was only _so_ much testing you could do with AIs, even less with constructs you made yourself. She was a construct of human ingenuity creating a construct of… robot-human ingenuity. It didn’t work out much, GLaDOS had found. Plus, most of the humans that Blue and Orange had found and _liberated_ were… out of commision. A select few humans were comatose from the moment they were taken out of stasis, the weak flesh-things, but she was intrigued to find -- a few of them had some _very_ interesting files.

 

This was going to be _fun_.

 

\---

 

Things had been looking up for the past month. Him and Space were now official “Space Friends”, and Wheatley could converse in ways that actually _made sense_ and Space was becoming social, in a way. Whatever brought this along, Wheatley didn’t know, but he wasn’t complaining. He had become less lonely and he was more than happy to talk to someone, no matter how joyfully oblivious they may be.

 

_Five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten--_

 

“Space friend! Look! Look!” Space said eagerly, mechanisms clicking and whirring.

 

“One moment, I can’t see it from here…” Wheatley strained his optic, trying to see what Space was seeing while he was spinning. It was… small. And _new._ “What do think it is?”

 

“Satellite? Rock?? Robot! Robot, space friend!”

 

Wheatley squinted, trying to see if this was true. It _was_ , apparently and he could see the blurry Aperture logo. What was it doing all the way out here, the outdated piece of scrap? This couldn’t be good. It had-- claws? There’s no way that She would actually take them back to the facility, unless--

 

_She wants revenge. Oh dear, what’s she gonna do to me?_

 

It ascended slowly towards Wheatley, with tiny little thrusters on it’s back. Wheatley saw it reach and and he felt it wrench a plate into its grasp and Wheatley yelped. The damn thing almost pulled a piece clean off him!

 

He assumed it had grabbed Space, because Wheatley would’ve been able to hear him from a mile away. “Wait! No! I don’t want to leave! Space! I want to stay!” He could hear Space struggling, the poor guy. “Nononono! We just got here! We can’t leave now! Space friend, help! We can’t go!” Wheatley felt heavy.

 

“Uhh, space buddy, calm down. It’s okay! I’m--uh-- going to miss space too,” Wheatley really _wouldn’t_ , but saying that would be the last thing he needed. “It was beautiful, but… all things come to an end eventually, and I guess this one couldn’t last _any_ longer. Very sad. But we have to push on, I guess. Even in the worst of times.”

 

Space Core sounded sad, but he stopped resisting and Wheatley could hear his optic lids shutting. And with that, Space Core shut off, and got some well deserved rest.

 

Wheatley laughed. “Did you just shut down? Wow, I’m surprised it took you so long. You need it, buddy, after getting excited about space for what, over _two years_ . Impressive, really. Never seen a core do it before. Humans can’t even last _two weeks_ without a shutdown of sorts. Smelly humans.”

 

And just like that, Wheatley was lonely again. And as the Aperture robot began to descend back to Earth, he began to think.

 

So the only reason GLaDOS could _ever_ possibly want him back was if that she got really bitter and believed that eternity in space wasn’t punishment enough, and, here it comes, she was probably _right_.

 

Wheatley had thought about these things often enough, and he wasn’t really willing to think about it much more. Oh, and apparently when re-entering Earth’s atmosphere at high speeds, you got _really_ hot. Oh well. He would’ve shut down by staring at the sun too long, anyway.

 

_Core overheating…_

_Shutting down…_

 

\---

 

It had been, decidedly, _less_ fun than she thought it would be actually retrieving them.

 

GLaDOS did _not_ like space travel at all. It was clunky, and she was appalled to find that the retrieval network that would normally allow Aperture products to be able to retrieve themselves, via who-know-what, was utterly _broken_ , it was that moron’s fault, no doubt. It brought her great disdain when she had to dig up one of Aperture’s earliest Orbit models. So inefficient.

 

But now it was done, and the moron and his failure companion were on the way to the facility this moment, and GLaDOS was impatient to get her procedures done. She did not like waiting.

 

But something _did_ need her attention. Things had been going wrong around the facility, and she had a good idea as to who was running around.

  
That _rat._


	2. CHPT2.MMRY

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wheatley learns something about himself and his friend.

_ Files loading… _

 

Huh. This was new. A… database? Wheatley knew that he had one, every core did, but it’s accessibility was something he did not know was possible.

 

Wheatley’s database was a jumble of endless columns and rows. He opened one.

 

**_Loading 28940t.file..._ **

 

“Can a moron PUNCH. YOU. INTO. THIS. PIT!?”

 

_ Yes _ , it seemed.

 

Wheatley opted for another.

 

**_Loading 904673y.file..._ **

 

“Don’t be selfish,  _ luv _ . You’re going to die.”

 

_ She wouldn’t. _

 

Wheatley remembered that one. 

 

**_Loading 45836784.file..._ **

 

“Am I being to vague? I despise you. I  _ loathe _ you. You  _ arrogant, smugly, awful _ jumpsuited monster of a woman.”

 

_ That wasn’t true. She was the only friend Wheatley had ever had. _

 

Chell had that determined look on her face, the one she made when she knew she  _ had _ to succeed. At the time, Wheatley wanted her dead. That part was saved in the file and was incredibly unpleasant. 

 

_ Out of all the files, he just happened to get these. Great. _

 

**_Loading 473.mmry..._ **

 

… a .mmry file? Wheatley vaguely remembered the term, but hadn’t a clue as to what it was, or what it was doing in his  _ database _ of all places. It played.

 

A dull office scene with two people standing in it built itself before him.

 

“What do you mean she’s still crazy? Wait. You’re telling me that the  _ Morality Core _ didn’t make her  _ moral?” _ The scientist put a hand to her forehead. “We’re running out of options. Wheatley, if you don’t figure this out, consider you and your team  _ replaced _ .” She gestured towards the door. “Now get out. I don’t want to hear from you unless it’s ‘ _ Ma’am she’s up and running!’ _ . Go.”

Wheatley? Why had she-- Wheatley remembered none of this. The closer Wheatley looked, he could see that his database was absolutely  _ riddled  _ of .mmry files. One after another, he could see them lined up, thousands of them.

 

**_Loading 590.mmry…_ **

 

“Wheatley, do you know why we brought you here?” the woman asked.

 

He adjusted his coat. “Uh--no, actually.” 

 

The woman leaned her head to the chair in front of her. “Take a seat, Wheatley,” he did. “We’ve heard you’ve been having trouble keeping GLaDOS in line, correct?” Wheatley hated to admit it, but she was right.

 

“Yes, we have been. Everything we do seems to make it worse.” 

 

She nodded. “What kind of cores are you attaching to her?”

 

“AI Core V.1.3, ma’am.”

 

“Have you considered using an alternative to AI?” 

 

He furrowed his brows. “Alternative?”

 

“An actual human psyche.” She smiled.  _ “And we _ **_\--_ **

 

**_Closing open files..._ **

 

_ Now? Of all times? What-Why-- _

 

**_Powering on...._ **

 

It was dark. The jingle that signified a startup sounded twice, clashing in different keys. 

 

“Welcome back, moron.”

 

Wheatley’s circuits froze, and his optic lids slammed open. He heard Space rustling in the corner, though he didn’t pay him much mind.

 

She was  _ much _ scarier than he remembered. She held him with a multi-purpose arm, dangling him from the top of the room. She inspected him, as if valuing some scrap.

 

“It turns out that the Personality Core V.2.1 cannot access it’s files. This was probably intentional.”

 

She got closer, optic shining. “How were yours? It’s a quick override, really. Change this, delete that, I must say. You have  _ quite  _ a few memory files for an AI.”

 

Wheatley could barely follow her train of thought. 

 

Yes, he was an AI. No, he was not meant to be able to access his database. GLaDOS overrode that. .mmry files are  _ memory files _ and they were in his  _ database _ , as to  _ why _ \-- Wheatley  _ really didn’t want to know. _

 

“Unless…” GLaDOS looked mock-thoughtful. “You’re not an AI. Tell me, what do you think? Input is very important, you know.”

 

Wheatley scrambled for something to say.  _ Yes, no wait no, I see where you’re coming from, but the stars do not align, not allowing-- _

 

“Yeah sure, that seems about right.”

 

_ What. _

 

“ _ What? _ ”

 

GlaDOS sounded perplexed. “That was… unexpected. Though, it didn’t really matter what you had to say about it.” She said. “Input is not important.” The Arm swung him around a bit, back and forth.

 

Wheatley almost shrieked. “Why? What’s--- Gah!” He flailed around.

 

The arm swung him around a little. “Wow, did space fry your processors? You sounded like you were going to ask an  _ insightful question _ .” 

 

“SPACE!”

 

GLaDOS looked annoyed. “Oh. You. Personality Core V.2.0. The only one ever created. Apparently, the scientists made some miscalculations when assessing the file size of a personality.” She set Wheatley down on the floor, picking up Space. “The drive on the core ended up only being able to download the most prominent part of his personality.” 

 

GLaDOS’s tone switched to one of fake pity. Her optic narrowed, mocking. “Of course they originally made folders for things like aspirations, hobbies, and what they like and dislike, but with nothing to fill these folders the part of the personality that was downloaded just filled the empty space. Thus, the failed “Space Core” was made and promptly discarded. Interesting, isn’t it?”

 

Space blinked. “Space Friend?”

 

“Yeah, buddo?”

 

“Space--not cool. Want to go home.”

 

Wheatley rolled to look over at him. GLaDOS held him scarily close to her optic, her orange light shining onto the shivering core.

 

“Don’t worry, I’m sure the facility will feel like a home enough after a couple near-death experiences.” She dropped him next to Wheatley, and turned around. “Blue, Orange, get them plugged back into their systems. I have something important to get to.”

 

She glanced back at them, as an afterthought. She smiled. “Oh and-- don’t worry, you two. It  _ will  _ hurt.”

  
Wheatley shivered. He had no idea what was going on, but one thing was for sure. This was  _not_ going to be good. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW. I suck. But I did get another chapter in, and I'm hoping the quality of them increases as time continues. As always, criticism is ALWAYS appreciated. Thank you for reading! Oh and the startup sound is actually the Windows startup. I just thought that'd be funny.

**Author's Note:**

> Constructive criticism is incredibly appreciated. If anyone appears out of character, tell me in which way (I am horrendous with character). Thank you for reading! :)


End file.
